


Best Friends are a Gift (so where's the receipt?)

by FireflySong



Series: Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge 2020 [11]
Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Diners, First Meetings, Gen, Humor, and thus the trifecta had been completed, sequel to meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:15:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24685969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflySong/pseuds/FireflySong
Summary: When Josh asked Chris to meet him at their usual diner, he hadn't been expecting another person with him. But hey, all things considered, it was a pretty great surprise in the long run.Written for Day 11: Surprise of the Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge over on tumblr.
Relationships: Ashley Brown & Chris Hartley & Josh Washington
Series: Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770988
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Best Friends are a Gift (so where's the receipt?)

**Author's Note:**

> and here it is, the long awaited sequel to my day 6 prompt meeting. I mean, chris still had to meet ashley, so this is that fic. super weird to think of an idea for this one because Surprise! was the name of my first fanfic at the tender age of 14 and this was making me feel things. i dont know what things, and im not sure if theyre good or bad.
> 
> you can find me on tumblr at love-fireflysong if you feel so inclined!

When Chris left his house to go and meet Josh at their usual place, he hadn’t quite been expecting the sight before him. Which was saying something. After having known and been best friends with Josh for nearly five years now, he now knew that almost anything was on the table when it came to dealing with Josh Washington. Hell, this was the boy that when they were in Elementary School, showed up for Spirit Week wearing a disgustingly realistic fully body morph suit of the body’s inner muscles and organs for Inside Out Day. He could have been wearing one of Hannah’s dresses and Chris probably would have just complimented him on how the color brought out his eyes.

That being said, the red-haired girl sitting next to Josh in their booth was a complete surprise. Despite the bright smile on his face, he looked like he had trapped her there against her will by the way she was slouching in the seat, almost like she was trying to slowly escape by melting underneath the table. And honestly, Chris couldn’t really blame her. He liked the guy well enough, they were best friends after all, but Josh was a lot to handle for the uninitiated. Which, judging by the fact that he had never seen her in his life, she definitely was.

He cleaned his glasses on his shirt just to make sure that he wasn’t imagining her, but nope, she was still there when he put them back on.

“Chris! There you are, man! Get your nerdy little butt over here!”

Carefully maneuvering between customers carrying trays of burgers and ice cream, Chris made his way to their usual corner table and sat down across from Josh and the mysterious red head. 

“Heeeeey?” Chris greeted the two of them more then a little bit confused. The girl gave a little wave of her hand in greeting, just as unsure about what was happening as he was. Which was not boding well, all things considered.

If Josh took any notice of this, he ignored it. “Good to see that you finally got released for good behavior. Do you have to report to your patrol officer after this or are you free for the rest of the day?” 

Chris rolled his eyes. “You make it sound like I was just in prison. I was just grounded dude, no thanks to you.”

“It wasn’t my idea to prank Zimmerman.”

“It totally was, Josh.”

“Yeah, well, wasn’t my idea to do it with ding-dong-ditch.”

“Nope, that was all you too.”

For some reason, this made the girl sit up straighter in her seat with a sigh. “Oh, so _this_ is the accomplice then.”

Chris looked across the table at the two them, still in the dark about what the hell was going on, even though the redhead seemed to have figured it out. “Who is still very confused as to who you are supposed to be.”

To his surprise, Josh looked awfully eager to introduce them, now leaning over the table with a smile almost wider then he had ever seen it before. “Oh man, you are not going to believe this! So I met her at the library—”

“What the hell were you doing there?!”

“Not important. Anyways—”

“Nope. Not dropping this. You hate the library. I have never once seen you step foot into it voluntarily.”

Josh groaned dramatically, as though put out that he had to stop his story to explain something so inconsequential. “Hannah wanted to go look a book about butterflies. Which meant Beth wanted to go. Which meant _I_ had to go because while you were serving hard time, was playing the perpetual baby-sitter.” 

“Why are you intent on making it sound like I was in prison?”

“Cause I have to make you sound way more cool and badass than you actually are. Can I please continue with my story now?” He paused for a second, and it was literally a second, giving neither Chris nor the mystery girl any chance to respond. “Thank you. Anyway, we’ve been hanging out since then while I waited for your release.”

“Wait.” Chris was still very confused. And also kinda hurt as he pointed at himself. “So you _replaced_ me? With her? With Library Girl?” 

“I do have a name you know.”

“Not now, Library Girl,” Chris said as he looked at Josh in complete affront. “What the hell, dude? I was grounded for literally a week and you already replaced me? Wow, I thought we had something special, but I guess not.”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, dude. I’ve only been meeting up with her at the library for, like, the past three days now.”

If Chris had been able to, he probably would have wrapped Josh up in his arms to protect him from Library Girl, as he now called her. As it was, it was too busy in the diner to do anything but just stare at her in shock and horror. “What did you do to him? What did you do to my best friend?! You-you... Library Girl!”

If he had been expecting any response, it definitely wasn’t the one he got. She just rolled her eyes and he caught the first smile starting to peek at the corners of her mouth. “Oh yeah, you two are definitely made for each other. I can see that now.”

Before this could get any further out of his control, Josh interrupted whatever routine the two of them had started. “Oh good. Nice to see you two get along famously already. Chris, this is Ash—”

“ _Ashley._ ”

“—and she’s our new best friend.”

There was an awkward moment of silence where Chris and Library Girl—sorry, Ash—fully took in Josh’s words. The silence between the three of them filled with the sounds of the diner in motion. The white noise of chatter as diner goers ate and gossiped around them. The crumple of wrappers, spoons clattering against glass, the bustle from the kitchen as patties were flipped and seared and the rumble of the soft serve machine as ice cream was dispensed to a family of four.

Finally, Chris was able to speak. “I don’t-I don’t think that’s really how friends work, Josh.”

“I mean, don’t I get any say in this? Maybe I don’t _want_ to be friends with your stupid butts.”

He turned to Ashley affronted. “Excuse you, but my stupid butt is very nice actually and I don’t appreciate you insulting it like that.” Once again, he caught the peek of a smile forming, this time a little larger then the one before and he was able to catch a glimmer of braces on her teeth.

He was distracted by Josh groaning dramatically. “You don’t understand! I had just met her and had only been talking for like two minutes when she proceeded to just drag my goddamn ass.” He put a hand over his heart and fall back into the old red-brown vinyl seating of the booth, sighing like some sort of lovestruck teenager. “Oh you should have seen it, it was _glorious_.”

Chris eyed Ash, taking in her scraggly red hair, braces, the smattering of freckles across her face and arms, and the fact she was actually a full foot shorter then either him or Josh. She looked like a strong breeze could have blown her away. “I somehow really doubt that.”

Ash bristled in her seat, sitting up straighter as she level him with a glare that he had a feeling would have turned _him_ to ash if it could’ve. Alright, he could admit that the dragging was looking more and more likely. She was looking ready to drag _his_ ass now, physically to boot.

“No no no no. It was amazing. Here, we’ll reenact it for you!”

Ash stopped glaring at him to turn flabbergasted to Josh. “Wait, what? We are not reenacting that!”

“Too late, Ash!”

“It’s _Ashley_ , not Ash. How many times do I have to tell you?”

Chris rolled his eyes and sighed in the long-suffering way of someone who’s had to deal with this type of shit for most of his life. Which he definitely had. “Just give it up. Now that he’s started there’s no way he will ever stop. You are no longer Ashley, but Ash. You must accept your new place in the cosmos.”

The smile on her face was much wider now, showing off her braces in their full glory as she gave a small laugh. “Had to deal with him for a while have you.”

He shrugged, lopsided smile showing off his own matching braces while he straightened his glasses. “Close to five years now. I’d say you get used to it, but you never really do.”

“I told her that she didn’t know me nearly well enough to be dissing me, and she said—” it seemed that Josh still hadn’t abandoned hope of retelling the moment where she had apparently just destroyed him. He gestured to Ash to continue, gesture becoming only more frantic as she refused to do so out of principle. And honestly? Chris could respect the hell out of her for that alone.

Finally, she rolled her eyes and looked to the tiled ceiling of the diner with her arms up in a ‘what did I do to deserve this’ gesture. “I said that you were an annoying, egotistical, conceited, full of himself, cocky prankster who loves the sound of his own voice.”

There was a second where Josh seemed to reabsorb the words, his face not really falling, but doing something as Chris tried really, really hard not to laugh and just stared in awe at her. 

“I feel like there were more words there then before.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve known you longer now.”

That was it. The dam burst as Chris all but collapsed on top of the table, body shaking with laughter. “Oh man. Yeah, we are definitely keeping you!” Ash seemed to be in some sort reluctant agreement as she smiled and shook her own shoulders in barely repressed laughter as Josh continued to stare agog a the two of them. Soon enough though, all three of them were clutching at the table and wheezing in shared laughter as some of the nearby patrons at other tables looked at them in annoyance for disturbing their meals.

Finally, after all the laughter subsided and Chris was able to speak, he wiped a tear from under his eye and reached for his wallet. “What to you want to eat, Ash? My treat.”


End file.
